Offense

by Briley Weikel

after Hamlet

Monologue Text:

To offend, or not to offend, that is the question,

Whether 'tis ignorant in the mind to suffer

The scorn and mockery of impotent society 

Or to fight back against a sea of agitation

And by opposing, prolong them. To run—to hide

No more; and by hiding, to say we entrench 

The heart-ache and the thousand words of pain.

That insecurity is heir to: 'tis a thought 

Devoutly to be dreamt.  To run, to hide;

To hide, perchance to be found, Ay there's the rub:

For in that hiding what harms may come,

When we have shuffled off this external hatred,

Must give us pause— but then, there's the internal

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear to whip and scorn them-self?

Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's demise, 

The pangs of dispriz'd security, the loves delay,

The insolence of them, and the insolence of you,

That harmful merit of thy words take,

When I myself  might this regretfully make

With a solemn stare,  would one dreadfully bear,

To sigh and cry under a weary life,

But that the dread of something following,

The uncovered lies made, by those we used to trust.